WPA education initiatives in the triennium 2020‐2023
Authors: Roger M.K. Ng
Journal: World Psychiatry (2023)

As most countries have lifted their travel restrictions imposed for the prevention of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WPA has resumed organizing and co-organizing face-to-face academic conferences. While this is a welcome move to many mental health professionals who have longed for meeting up with their long-time research collaborators and friends from different areas of the world, not all professionals can afford conferences and their related expenses. The COVID-19 pandemic has been for the WPA a catalyst to hasten the development and promotion of an online Education Portal, aiming to promote dissemination of mental health knowledge and skills worldwide1-7. Any WPA website visitor can register as a user of the Portal for free. As of today, WPA has hosted more than 25 webinars covering a variety of topics, from new developments in basic sciences relevant to mental health, to mental health prevention and early intervention, to psychiatric rehabilitation and services aimed to promote recovery. All webinars have been recorded and uploaded for free access and review by the Portal users. The Portal also hosts more than 20 free educational courses dealing with a variety of topics, in as many as 18 different languages, to facilitate learning by users who are not proficient in English. Updated mental health resources are also available in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and to support professionals working for people affected by the war in Ukraine. The number of registered users of the Portal has been steadily increasing. They are now from over 30 different countries around the globe. The origin and the number of registered users have reflected the popularity of Internet-based educational and training materials, and supported the WPA's initial conviction about the importance of Internet-based training and education as pivotal in the dissemination of psychiatric education around the globe. While the resources available in the Education Portal address the knowledge needs of mental health professionals, they cannot efficiently meet their requirements in terms of skills transfer and acquisition. For this latter purpose, the WPA has launched a series of Volunteering Programmes, based on the involvement of expert volunteers in different fields and from different countries to address the national training needs of selected Member Societies. As of today, the WPA Workgroup on Volunteering has successfully completed one project in Mexico8 and another one in Pakistan9. Both projects had the unique characteristics of involving local trainers in the programme, emphasizing the training ingredients of experiential role-plays and live demonstrations, extensively having the participants involved in the discussions, and asking local trainers and participants to contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness of the projects as well as rating their satisfaction with the programme. In the coming few months, two more projects will be launched in Guatemala and Honduras, with the involvement of expert volunteers nominated by regional Member Societies. These two projects will be conducted in the native language of the host Member Societies. The third project in the pipeline will involve a North African country that is in dire need of training and educational support in rebuilding its mental health capacity. The WPA is currently inviting Member Societies to produce a list of potential expert volunteers in different psychiatric subspecialties, so that the Association can continue to provide a fair and transparent platform to facilitate collaboration between Member Societies around the globe. Finally, a WPA global survey on the training landscape of psychiatrists has been conducted with the aim to depict a comprehensive profile of training levels and experiences of psychiatrists around the world10. This is providing valuable guidance to the WPA so that it can focus its resources and efforts in supporting those countries with most pressing shortage of training for their psychiatrists.